Bravo Squad - Conspiracy Theory
by nub4lyfe21
Summary: Bravo Squad Series #3. When a black-bag operation goes wrong and two Clones desert, Republic Commando Squad Bravo and RepIntel agent Kofer uncover a plot against one of the richest families of Naboo, prompting an undercover operation. Sequel to Operation Takedown.
1. Chapter 1 - Basic Osik

_Author's notes:_

 _This is the third Bravo Squad entry. It will be the second last prequel to Desertion, followed by the very short A Shot In The Dark, which will cover Order 66 and a bit of the events leading to the Deserton. After that, I will write Terror Threat, the sequel to Desrtion, which I plan to be the final installment in this series, unless I come up with some more material.  
Chapters will be released on a weekly basis.  
I recommend you read the other stories on my profile in order. Their numbers are indicated. Certain plot points can be misunderstood. Of course, like my previous fanfics, certain things may not seem like they are in order, but trust me: It will be developed even further later on.  
Conspiracy Theory will cover two Clone agents deserting. Kofer and Bravo are tasked with hunting them down, only to uncover a plot with links to Kofer's past.  
Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm, I only own the laptop this was written on.  
This series is influenced by the Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss._

* * *

" _The_ aruetiise _, whether foreigners or cowards, deserve  
to be left to rot in the dust, while we loyal Mandos  
gloriously advance. They're dishonorable _shabuir _."_

-Unknown Mandalorian, during the Mandalorian Wars

* * *

 **Date: 21BBY, 11 months after the Battle of Geonosis  
Location: High-rise Apartment, Coruscant**

It was nighttime on Corsucant, and the Colonel was tired as she flung the door of her apartment open. Kofer had spent the last thirty-four hours searching through the lower levels of Coruscant for information on Bal Torun. The last time she had seen that Death Watch scum was when she had handed him over to the company of Clones who were supposed to take him to Galactic City. Unfortunately, along the way, his Death Watch buddies had sprung him. RepIntel had found the cargo ship floating in space, about half the distance between Geonosis and Coruscant with everyone dead from either explosive decompression or blasterfire.

She knew that she should have just shot him on that dustbowl of a planet, but the Chancellor had been determined to speak with Torun. Now he sent Kofer on here a wild goose chase just to find him. Kofer knew the man's reasons were justified, as Torun had seen information regarding Project INHIBITOR, which could not, under any circumstances, be released to the public. It was bad enough that they were at war, but news about mind control and torture could destroy the public's belief in the Chancellor.

Reminiscing about Geonosis, Torun, and the Project caused her mind to flashback to the Republic Commando squad that had assisted her in Operation Takedown. Bravo was currently in the Inner Rim, on some off-the-books data recovery mission through a space station. She sighed as she collapsed onto her bed, with her uniform still on. Even though she was Special Operations attaché, Kofer only advised the Squad on some missions. They considered her to be one of their own, often spending as much down time in the mess hall with her.

After Falco – the real Falco – was terminated in INHIBITOR while his memories were transferred into Hoffer, who unconsciously thought he was Falco and took his name and rank, Kofer felt a bit guilty. It was a by-effect to ensure that he would mindlessly obey her and the Chancellor's orders. Seeing the former Demolition Expert planting that device on the _Prosecutor_ had caused her to be slightly sick. She originally had the thought to put a blaster bolt through his head at the end of the Project, to end his suffering, but knew she could not, so she sent his sorry _shebs_ – oh, she was picking up some _Mando'a_ – back to Arca Barracks with the rest of the team.

Cryer, the sniper of the team, had taken the news regarding "Hoffer's" death badly. He often sat alone on the parade square, daydreaming to himself and once even tried to top himself. When in combat, he always covered this up by becoming a comedian double act with Nuts, who became his close friend, if one could put it that way. In fact, it was the reason why she had gotten Nuts to ensure that he didn't do anything stupid. Nuts, Slicer of all systems through out the galaxy, had accepted his brother's death. According to his Mando Sergeant's reports, Nuts was one of the smartest of his batch. As a result, he had accepted that his brother would probably not come back because he had studied brain hemorrhages when training as a medic and knew that the patient had a high chance of dying.

Of course, the squad had to get a replacement. Luckily, she found For, a sole survivor from Zanax Squad, and shoved him into Bravo. Zanax had worked with Bravo before, so they knew him quite well. His team had been caught in an ambush on Kamino, and all had died. If it were not for his Sergeant kicking him through a door and sealing it behind him, For would have been a dead man. Kofer knew when to pester for details, and when she asked him if he wanted to talk about it, the expression on his face caused her to back off.

Kofer stepped off her bed and turned on the light over her desk. She picked up the mail where she had dumped it on the floor and started to sift through them. Most of it was the usual, letters from her old friends on Naboo. They were trying to reconcile her with her mother after she let the Jedi take Kofer away, but to no effect. When they called through her comlink, Kofer usually talked to them. But if they brought up her family, she would immediately cut the line. She flipped through them quickly, determined to finish reading any important ones before she went and showered.

She suddenly stopped, however, when she reached a grey envelope. On it was stamped a Clone's I.D. number: RC-2013. She knew whose number it was and opened it instantly. After Cryer's attempted suicide, she ordered Nuts to send her a monthly report. She could not trust Falco to do it because of, well, INHIBITOR, and For was the new guy, so he was ruled out. Nuts always wrote his letters on flimsi these days. As a slicer, he knew that if information was online, _anyone_ could access it. If it was physical, only the reader could see it. She flipped it open and started reading. Nuts' handwriting was terrible and he knew it.

 _Kofer,_

 _I don't know why you insist that I write to you informally. You're a Colonel, for_ shabla _sakes. Are you trying to buy favours? Get more warra nuts out of me? You aren't getting any if you are. They're MINE._

 _Regarding Cryer, he's doing fine. Last week, we were sent on an assassination. I can't disclose the details, but he was pretty happy when he took off a Sep's head. Nutcase He was smiling all the way back to Arca Barracks. So don't worry, he isn't gonna top himself anytime soon. We're gonna be off duty soon, so I guess we'll see you in the mess hall from time to time._

 _The rest of the squad misses you. The missions that you advised us on, especially that nutty and fun one on Dagobah, were the best. Maybe someday, you can do it again? I need more nerf jerky._

 _Regards,_

 _Nuts_

 _RC-2013_

 _P.S. For's doing fine. The windbag keeps taking the rest of the Squad's warra nuts. I do NOT need another Cryer on my hands._

When Kofer read the letter, she cringed a bit and threw letter back on the table. She never expected to gain feelings for a soldier, let alone a Clone. After seeing one of her few friends die in the defense of Naboo, she never sought any love relationships, worried that it could affect her combat performance. Putting the letter in the file that she stuffed all of Nuts' 'reports' into, Kofer walked over towards the bathroom.

It was then when she suddenly got a message on her datapad, which caused her to swear in hutt'ese as she picked it up and read from it. As she read the message, her eyes widened in fear before she quickly typed a message. She changed into her typical operation gear – civvy clothes and a bantha jacket –before running back to her speeder to drive to Arca Barracks. Something was going wrong with Bravo Squad, and they needed her help.

* * *

 **Location: Space Station _Javert,_ Inner Rim  
A few moments earlier**

" _This really is the_ shebs _end of the galaxy,"_ Nuts mused to himself as the TIV drifted towards the Space Station _Javert._ It was an Intelligence station, but right now, Bravo Squad was assigned to retrieve a transmission along with two Clone Intelligence Agents. Twy and Jan both sat at the opposite side, probably deep in conversation behind their helmets.

Beside him, Cryer racked the charge pack into the DC-17, which shined a lumnious blue. Falco was scanning through the data on his pad, noting important information. Nuts had never seen his Sergeant act like this when they were training, but after his little trip in the coma, something must have happened, so he never pestered. Nuts himself was anxious over his two pod brothers' actions, ever since the Battle of Kamino. Cryer was a bit crazier and Falco was more resigned, causing Nuts to feel slightly worried. He did not think it was a big issue, so he left it out of his reports to Kofer. He knew she probably had a lot on her plate, especially with Torun ditching them.

He was, however, especially worried for their replacement of Hoffer. For had barely gotten any contact with the squad. He only played a few sports with them since he was integrated, and during missions he appeared lost, but who could blame him? The man's entire team was killed in action on Kamino.

Twy snapped his fingers at the Squad, gathering them around the Clone Sergeant at the center of the room. Bravo noisily clanked their way towards them in their heavy Katarn Armor, causing Jan to cringe with every step. The Clone Sergeant, CT-21-2244, also known as Armful, was their assigned advisor. He was a veteran of Geonosis who had lost one of his hands in the chaos, reducing him to an office desk. Even though he was given a prosthetic, he had chucked it aside, saying his pain was what kept him alive. Despite this, Zey promoted him to advisor status because he could multi-task very well. Armful coughed into his remaining hand before starting his briefing.

"Gentlemen, this is a black-bag mission so only a few people can provide back up for us. It comes straight from Republic Command, so we can't afford to screw this one up," Armful tensed up slightly, causing the others to wonder what was so important about this mission. "This is the _Javert_ ; it acts as a sort of intelligence outpost for the Republic. Last week, it intercepted a transmission from a Separatist network and it apparently contains heavily protected information. They contacted us, and Republic Command volunteered us to retrieve it.

"So this mission is simple. Bravo is to cover you two while the Agents follow the crew and retrieve the datatapes with the transmissions. Do not let it fall into enemy hands, etc, etc, you know the drill. So are there any questions?"

A hand shot into the air at the back of the scrum. Armful groaned before asking, "What is the problem, Nuts?"

"Isn't this a bit overkill, Armful? We're sending in a _shabla_ Commando squad into a space station where we're gonna be mostly useless. How is _this_ effective?"

Armful swept his one hand into the air, "Personally, I couldn't agree more, but these datatapes are kriffing important to the Republic. Even though they've not discussed anything with me, there may be something on those tapes that could pinpoint a weakness in the Separatist army," He paused as the TIV finally finished its docking procedures. "Well, this is your stop. See you in about five minutes."

The Clones stepped off the ramp into the satellite station. It was very small, and the gravity force in it was weak, causing the Commandos to clatter into each other as they followed the two agents and a crewmember through the airlock. Several intelligence agents sat hard as work, typing into their terminals as they squeezed to allow the soldiers to pass through. They finally reached a data station, where Jan took a seat and started to transfer the data. Bravo Squad lounged around wherever they could, not unsealing their suits.

"So what do you think is so important about these tapes?" For asked suddenly. "If Command desperately needs it, why send us out and not a company of Clones. We're not trained for this _osik._ "

"Settle down, _vod_. This stuff is, as Kofer would put it: "Basic _osik_ "; in and out in less than thirty seconds, we should be all right. In fact, once we get off duty from this, I'm gonna go finish up that blasted story I've been working on," Cryer stated proudly as he leaned back in the small stool he found.

Falco chuckled, the only sound of laughter Nuts had heard in almost four months. "You fancy yourself a writer, _ner vod_? What's the story about?"

Despite him wearing his helmet, the rest of Bravo could tell Cryer was getting embarrassed. The little shifts in his seat were dead giveaways that he was turning red. "Uhh, it involves revolutionaries and guerilla warfa… You know what, never mind. I'm sure it'll bomb 'cause it suc…"

As though on cue, an explosion cut him off as the station lunged itself through space, sweeping the Commandos off their 'seats'. They hit the side of the cramp corridor with such force that Nuts was afraid it would buckle. They looked down the hallway and saw through the glass in the airlock that the TIV was completely destroyed, meaning that Armful was dead. Suspecting a CIS attack, the entire squad removed their weapons and looked around, while at the same time understanding that their blasters could do little against an enemy fleet.

Just behind them, blasterfire echoed throughout the space station, followed by the screams and howl of men dying. Cryer looked up the hallway in time to spot the Agents eliminating the crewmembers, their bodies slowly drifting to the floor while Jan pocketed the datatapes. "Oi!" Cryer roared, only to immediately regret it as a Deece opened up on him. He quickly smashed a button, causing a seal to smash shut on both sides of the squad, between them and the other Clones. Even though he knew his armor could take the blast, it was drummed into his head to take cover first. Nuts then quickly typed a code into a terminal in order to prevent the two rogue agents from opening it. Twy continued to open fire until Jan grabbed his shoulder.

"Relax, man. We've got what we need. Time to bust out of here," Jan said as he pulled on Twy's shoulder. Both Agents hopped to the back of the station and jumped into one of the escape pod. Jan threw something out of the hatch before it sealed. A few minutes later, Bravo watched in horror as the escaoe pod disengaged itself from its airlock before being picked up by another ship. They sat there in silence for a few seconds until the ship left when Falco spoke up.

"Fierfek, what just happened _?_ "

Cryer snorted under his _buy'ce_. "I don't know, Falco. What I know is the fact that the _di'kut_ pair just escaped with our mission objective. And right now, I'm sure the oxygen tanks in this ship are losing it faster than a drunk Nuts" – a small hey could be heard from the slicer working through the system –"We've got to call in a Code Red."

"Comms are down, _ner vod_. We can only transmit the message through the terminals. Fortunately, I know someone who knows we're out here, considering the fact that nearly no one knows where we are, since this is a black-bag operations." the Sergeant and the Sniper turned to look at Nuts, who was staring back with For hovering above him. The artificial gravity field had just switched off, causing him to float into the air. Nuts admitted he found it slightly funny, For having the Force and all. He could tell the Demo Expert was nervous, shutting up when he was usually talkative.

"I managed to get a message off to our dear _ner vod_. She's hauling her _shebs_ over here right now, so we should be fine. I've done some calculations: we've got about four hours of oxygen left if we breathe calmly, plus the ten minutes of oxygen in our suits, so no deep breaths. Oh, and don't take off your helmets. If we do go into a vacuum, you'll die from explosive decompression. If you're wondering what that is, basically, your blood boils and you -"

For did not hear the rest of the statement as he blacked out, slowly drifting across the room. Nuts howled with laughter before promptly being whacked by Falco, who ordered him to stop wasting precious resources. All they could do was wait for Kofer to show up.

"So much for basic _osik_ ," Falco muttered under his breath.

* * *

 **Location: Arca Barracks, Coruscant  
3 hours of Oxygen left**

Slick lifted his hand of cards into the air and sent it slamming back into the table. "Bippity Boppity Boo! That's twenty-three, you dirtbags!"

The other three Clone pilots groaned as they tossed their cards onto the table. They were busy playing Sabacc, considering there was nothing else to do when their TIVs were grounded. Slick was a bit apprehensive at first, when he was ordered to transfer to the Special Operations Brigade from the _Leveler_ , meaning that he would have to lose his baby. After piloting the TIV on a few missions, he had started to enjoy it even more than the larty, and decided to name it officially as the _Ranger_ after his larty.

The overjoyed pilot scooped the Sabacc pot towards him, which was a stack of candy bars. Skirata was generous to his boys, even the pilots. Slick thought his Mandalorian way of life was bit too, as Nuts would put it, nutty for his liking, but hey, if it got him more candy bars, he would gladly accept it. The pilot across the table, CT-1992, shuffled the deck of cards and started to deal them.

"He's a kriffing cheater, I'm certain of it. I've never lost so many hands of Sabacc before with the crew on board the _Assaulter_ ," he muttered under his breath as he scooped his cards into his hands before throwing a candy bar into the pot.

"Ha ha! Don't blame me; blame your-kriffing-self for sucking so badly!" Slick sneered at the rookie, who had just joined SOB as a replacement yesterday. The other pilots always made fun of the new guys; it was like an initiation ritual that every pilot of SOB had to go through. He looked at his cards, hoping the tone of his voice did not indicate the lousy hand he had received. Looking around to make sure the other pilots were busy staring at their own cards, he reached into his sleeve to take out another card to replace one in his hand…

Only for someone to reach out and grab his arm, causing him to drop his cards in shock. The other Clone pilots saw his cheating tactics and started to jeer. Phrases like "you son of a nerf herder!" and "Fierfek! Come on!" could be heard around the table as Slick turned to glare at Colonel Kofer, who started to drag him towards the barracks door and out of the room.

CT-1992 was laughing as a joke started to form in his mind. He stood up and pointed to Slick, who was starting to stratch at Kofer's hand. "Looks like mommy came to bail you out!" All the other pilots started to roar with laughter until Kofer paused in the doorway. CT-1992 was suddenly sent flying back across the room, smashing into the wall with a yelp. The other Clone pilots darted back, eyes widened in shock. Slick himself was surprised as the pair of doors sealed behind them before Kofer took a few more steps down the hallway to let go of his arm.

"For the love of… what was that for, Colonel? Can't you see I'm trying to get more candy bars? And what in Palpatine's name was that?" Slick hissed while peeling off one of the wrappers on the candy bar. It crunched loudly in his jaws, while he deliberately chewing it with his mouth open in an attempt to get on her nerves. She, instead, ignored the jab and showed him her datapad.

" _Urgent! Bravo trouble! SS_ Javert _! Oxygen last 6 hours!"_ was all the datapad said. Slick began to run down the long hallway towards his TIV as Kofer quickly stuffed the pad back into her bag and started to run past him. She somehow was running faster than the pilot, causing him to swear under his breath as they finally reached the hangar bay. Both of them jumped into the TIV as Slick started to request for permission to take off. Once he finished setting up the controls, he yanked the TIV into the air and into space.

He turned to look back into the compartment bay, where he saw Kofer donning a space suit. It looked really bulky and fat. "With all due respect, ma'am, where the kriff is this _Javert?_ And what is it?"

"It's a RepIntel space station in the Inner Rim. Bravo is currently stuck in there, and how they ended up like that I don't know why," she paused, wondering whether or not she should tell Slick why Bravo ended up there in the first place. "The _Javert_ intercepted a transmission a week ago. They were unable to decode it, so Bravo and two Clone Agents were sent in to retrieve it on an off-the-books mission. Something clearly went wrong, because Nuts messaged me about their predicament and that now… they've only got three hours of oxygen left. I've already transmitted the coordinates to the _Ranger,_ so just get us there!"

All Kofer heard was silence until the pilot pushed the TIV into hyperspace without warning her. The force caused her to collapse to the floor in the bulky suit, where she let out a string of curses because R&D had promised it would be better than the last suit. Slick climbed back into the bay and helped her up. "Great, they're in a black-bag op. Why'd you tell me all of that? Now I know all of this spook _osik_ y'all get involved in. For the Force's sake, I'm just a kriffing delivery man." Slick grunted as he pulled Kofer to her feet. The suit must have been thirty kilograms. He wondered how the Colonel was able to heft it around.

"Hey, how'd you do that to 1992 in the barracks? You gotta teach me _that_ stuff _._ "

* * *

 **Location: Space Station _Javert  
_ 1 hour of Oxygen left**

The ball of spit Cryer spat into the air floated around, causing For to feel a bit sick. Nuts had determined that it was safe to remove their helmets, so they had unsealed their suits. As a result of the TIV's explosion, the _Javert_ was drifting around, its only contact was a planet nearby, Dani, that was uninhabited. That was the reason why RepIntel had set up an outpost out here; in the middle of nowhere, barely contactable unless through the terminals. It was perfect for spooks.

The bodies of the dead crewmembers floated freely on the other side of the doors. Nuts had tried to unseal the door, but the code he had put in basically shut it down completely. For himself had suggested using explosives once he regained consciousness, convinced he could deploy a charge that would not rip a hole in the hull and use the pods. Nevertheless, Falco had quickly shut him down.

"Damn it, Cryer! Look at that ball of spit! If it lands on my armor, I'm gonna kill you!" For yelled as he launched himself away from the spittle, which was travelling in his general direction. It landed on Falco, who was floating behind him, and all he gave was a grunt before continuing trying to make contact with Arca Barracks. Both Nuts and Cryer exchanged looks. If it was the ordinary Falco, he would have grumbled and complained as usual. Now, it was as though he was one of the more quiet Clones, out of his wits.

Nuts rubbed his brow before checking his chrono. They had about fifty-five minutes of oxygen left. On Kamino, he said that if he had died, it would be in a hail of blaster bolts. He did not expect this when he woke up this morning. He went back to terminal and scanned a few lines of code before coming to a decision and pressing a button marked 'enter'.

All of a sudden, the section of the station they were in detached itself and lurched to the right, sending it into a deep spin. The other three Commandos gave Nuts a stare. He raised his hands with an 'I didn't do it' face as he frantically checked what had just happened. Falco approached him from behind before ordering a SITREP.

"Well, Sarge… you see that planet, Dani, over there?" Nuts continued to type lines of code into the terminal while shrugging through a viewport at a yellowish planet. Falco nodded his head. "We are currently on a crash course with it and are about to enter its poisonous atmosphere in approximately twenty minutes. If we do survive burning inside this piece of junk that RepIntel calls a space station, then we're gonna die after a few minutes on the ground."

"Oh fierfek, we're gonna die!" For screeched from behind them as he shoved his helmet back on before playing some music in his helmet. The poor guy was trying to comfort himself.

"Cool your butthole, For! Stop being such a kriffing pessimist! We are going to survive this stupid mission. Now, have you gotten those comms clear?" Falco asked his slicer, who after a few moments turned and gave him a grin.

" _Su cuy'gar_ , Bravo," Kofer's voice whirred with static as it came through their helmets' and the station's speakers. All the Commandos looked out the viewport to see the _Ranger,_ in all of its glory, attempting to fly next to the wrecked station. "Time to exfil, Commandos."

* * *

 _Author's notes:  
I've been watching a lot of Les Miserablés so I threw in the reference.  
Regarding CPASOW, I decided to delete it because I started to hate writing it. It also wasted a lot of time for me to come up with some new developments. So I decided to write Conspiracy Theory instead, because I prefer these characters to those ones. Consider CPASOW to be non-canon in this universe if you have read it._


	2. Chapter 2: Everyone's Got A Past

_Author's notes:  
Chapter 2 is out. It focuses on the rescue of Bravo Squad, followed by them having a party at the Kragget and getting into trouble. Meanwhile, a character from Desertion has a briefing with the Chancellor and Kofer, leading to the revelation of a plot against the Naboo government.  
Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm, I only own the laptop this was written on  
This Fanfic is influenced by the Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss._

* * *

" _Kriffing zero-g training. I hate this_ osik _. I'm a  
Commando, not Major Tom."_

\- RC-1626, 25BBY

* * *

Slick walked back into the cockpit where he sat in the pilot's seat. He flicked a few buttons that caused the door to seal shut behind him. Satisfied that he wasn't going to get sucked out into the space. He pressed the big red button next to him.

Kofer was launched out into the darkness of space, with only a rope to secure her to the ship. Using the prototype spacesuit's jetpack, she carefully launched her way towards the _Javert_. She could see the T-visor of the Commandos inside staring back at her, glowing a luminous blue in the blacked out wreckage. She landed against the side of the station, removing a circular device and placing it on the hull.

"You boys might wanna wear your helmets and seal your suits," she warned as she pushed herself away from the hull back towards the TIV. Slick was looking at her through the viewport, nodding his helmeted head, as he was impressed by her abilities. It was as though the Force was with her. As he turned back to fly the ship, his radar started whining, declaring that they were approaching an asteroid field.

Kofer was about to hit the detonator for the circular device to start cutting its way through the hull when a piece of space rock hit her palm. The five of them watched in horror as she unfurled her palm to reveal the shattered detonator. Fortuantely, the suit didn't get punctured, so she guessed R&D did keep their word. Unfortuantely, Bravo Squad thought they were doomed, with For shutting his eyes sadly until an explosion rocked the station. Some tiny little rocks rushed threw the fuselage, bouncing off their armor but depressurizing the station.

"Fierfek! What was that?" Falco demanded as the wreckage rocked as though it was possessed. Nuts threw himself back to the terminal, reading the damage report.

"Sarge, we've suffered a collision since we are in the middle of an asteroid belt. Slick shoulda told us we were headed towards one one."

"It's not my fault!" Slick howled as he realigned the TIV with the station.

"It hit the _shabla_ oxygen tank directly beneath of us. We're already depressurized and lost all the air. So we've only got five minutes of air in our reserve tanks left," he paused, biting his lower lip. "I'm sorry, Sarge. We aren't gonna make it."

The comm suddenly fell silent like a graveyard. Even Kofer, who managed to reattach herself to the hull, felt suddenly depressed. Suddenly, the rest of Bravo started to yelp over the comm. She could clearly hear Cryer and For yelling that they were going to die while the other two were trying to maintain order. She started to close her eyes, trying to manipulate their minds in order to calm the squad down when she noticed the hole in the side of the wreckage. It was just big enough for a human infant to fit through. Thinking quickly, she managed to calm up with a plan.

"For, there's a hole right below you. Can you see it? The structure should be now much weaker."

There was silence on the comm as the Commando slowly made his way downwards. He spotted the hole and started to fix it when he realized Kofer's plan. He pulled out his grenade launcher attachment and started to fix it to his DC-17 when he felt someone ram against him and snatch it out of his hands.

"Cryer, what the kriff are you doing?! Give it back to me! It's our only ticket out of here."

"What do you mean? The explosion can kill us, along with Kofer and possibly send debris through the TIV's viewport and through Slick's head. That means that we'll have six dead bodies on our hands."

"Thanks, guys. I didn't know you ever cared about me…" they heard Slick jab quietly through the comm.

"Better to die attempting to escape than for all of us to burn up in the atmosphere," For muttered as he raised his fist and punched Cryer in the face. The impact sent him tumbling backwards into Falco and Nuts, who grabbed hold of Cryer's arms. He started to thrash around as For finally fixed the attachment and fired a shot straight at the area surrounding the hole.

The detonation caused the starboard side of the station to detonate. Miraculously, no one was hurt as the blast was contained by something. A beep went through Nuts' helmet, and he gave a shriek that they only had two minutes of air in their tanks left. Pulling themselves out of the opening, they met Kofer, who gave them all a thumbs-up before she ordered them to grip each other's hands tightly, forming a chain with Nuts at the end. She pressed a button on her belt, causing the line to start retracting itself into the TIV's bay.

The Commandos started to cheer, even though they left half of their gear back inside the station as it started to plummet towards the planet. Nuts looked at it in awe, noticing that it slowly started to _melt_ in the atmosphere, for lack of a better word. He heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Slick bellow a warning before flinging the TIV into a barrel roll. The force of the roll was so strong that it caused Nuts to lose his grip and send him flying into outer space. The others yelled in horror as the slicer started to frantically shake his limbs, noticing that he had run out of oxygen.

Knowing that he had maybe a minute before he blacked out, Nuts started to make his peace with the world. He dreamt of an afterlife filled with warra nuts and plenty of nerfs to make steaks from when he felt someone tugging him. He closed his eyes and breathed calmly, thinking that he was already dying. Nuts started to black out just as he felt himself slam into a floor, followed by a door closing and a hissing noise. Someone ripped off his helmet, allowing some light to shine into his face before he heard his own voice yell out his name as he felt himself start to walk towards it.

" _Nuts!_ "

* * *

"Nuts! Wake Up! This isn't a game, _shabuir_! I said wake up!" Falco ordered the Commando loudly as he slapped his face in a desperately.

The _Ranger_ was already in hyperspace back towards Coruscant. Before they jumped, Kofer had called ahead and told Arca Barracks to prepare a surgical team in case they needed to treat Nuts for asphyxiation. Right now, the rest of Bravo crouched around their unconscious brother, restless to get him up.

Kofer, on the other hand, stood in the corner taking the spacesuit off her as though it was burning. She had used the Force in front of them to pull Nuts into the _Ranger_ , even though the Chancellor had given her a direct order that she could not use it in front of any Clone, whether Trooper or Commando. She was praying that Palpatine would not find out and execute the Squad as well as Slick. Wiping the sweat off her head, she turned back and clambered in the space suit towards the Squad.

" _Vod_. Listen. If you don't wake up, I'm gonna eat all your kriffing Nuts," For snapped at Nuts before Cryer remembered something he had seen Vau do. With a sense of determination, he removed his canteen and dumped its content onto Nuts' head. The slicer did not react until a few moments later, when he waved his hands in front of his face and spoke.

"No… not now. Five more minutes, please," he mumbled incoherently as he turned over in his unconscious state and curled into a ball, with his hands under his head. For, Cryer, Falco, and Kofer stared at him before looking at each other before bursting out into laughter. It was always good to laugh about something even in the darkest of times. Wiping a tear out of her eye, Kofer walked towards the cockpit of the TIV to join Slick while the rest of Bravo lingered around in the crew compartment. She heard Cryer yell that he had an idea as she heard a cap being removed from its marker.

Kofer sat in the cockpit seat next to Slick, who remained silent as he stared ahead in an obvious attempt to not make any conversation. She sensed a sense of suspicion radiating off of him. Kofer suddenly remembered how tired she was, and that it was about forty hours since she got any sleep. Closing her eyes, she heard Falco whispering angrily to For and Cryer, who were trying to stifle their giggles.

"So… you're a Force user, huh?"

She opened her eyes and saw Slick looking right at her, his black T-visor unmoving. Kofer felt the hair on the back of her neck stand as she pondered how to respond to his awkward question. Finally, she relented and decided to reveal the truth.

"Yes. Look, you can ostracize me all you want, but it was either I keep it a secret or I let Nuts di…"

"Listen, Kofer. I don't care whether you're a kriffin' Twi'lek or a lightsaber jockey. I'm not gonna cut off all ties with you; only lowlifes do that," he scratched his fingers against his helmeted nose. "Remember what I told you on Geonosis, Colonel? You're one of the _vode._ You're family now. And we don't leave family behind. 'Sides, I already figured it out after you threw 1992 at the wall, the _di'kut_."

She paused before asking, "You think Bravo knows the truth?"

"Too be honest, I think they either _do_ know it, or they don't give two _osiks_. The only thing they gave a damn about at that moment was whether or not Nuts was gonna turn into a kriffin' block of ice in space," Slick paused before reaching into his belt and throwing a candy bar at her. "Here's a bar. Thanks for bailing me out earlier. Your secret's safe with me."

Kofer looked down at the candy bar, which was wrapped in an orange material. She knew what one of these things meant to the pilot. "Thanks, Slick."

"You're welcome, Colonel. By the way, do you have a way of pulling that wreck out from the planet's surface? If I were doing spook _osik_ , no offense, by the way, I'd install a backup program for every bit of information that makes contact with the terminals." Slick suggested while he set the _Ranger_ to autopilot.

She thought about it for a moment. The _Javert_ was one of nine new outposts set up across the galaxy, so it _should_ have a server somewhere on it. The only problem was that the planet, Dani, leaked poison gas, so she had to send a droid to recover it. She started to hear a ruckus come from the crew bay and decided to investigate it.

"Yeah, I got a contact in RepIntel. Maybe he can pull something off," she remarked as she stood up and started to walk back towards the cargo when she stopped. "You ought to be a spook, Slick. You're better at that than being a pilot."

"Meh, I rather be the delivery man," Slick grinned at her before kicking his feet up on the console and leaning back to sleep. She noticed that his presence was now much more calmer, like he got something off his chest. She let out a grin as she started to walk back towards the crew compartment. She joined Falco in slapping her palm against her forehead, only in her case she was trying not to laugh out loud at the stupidest sight she'd ever seen. For and Cryer were rolling on the floor laughing at Nuts' face, on which a handlebar moustache and a pair of goggles were drawn.

Clones were weird, but at least they made life more interesting.

* * *

 **2 months after the _Javert_ incident  
The Kragget**

The rest of the Clones were busy talking with one another, but Nuts was too busy to care as he wolfed down the roba steak in front of him. He flashed a thumbs-up at the passing Twi'lek waitress, who smiled back at him. The Kragget was stuffed to the brim with both CSF and Clones, seeing as Skirata had both organized shore leave for them as well as finding an unofficial hangout spot for the CSF.

It was about two months since that failed operation on the _Javert_. So far as the squad knew, Kofer had organized a few teams of droids to go down and pick through the debris. It seemed that moments after they launched, the rest of the station turned itself towards the planet to crash there. It didn't take a genius to realize that they were dumping the evidence, but the crash didn't have the impact they expected.

Crash-site Dani was a crater in the middle of the toxic wasteland of a planet. The crewmembers' bodies had been burnt up on entry into the atmosphere, making it impossible for anyone to identify them. Nuts felt sad for them and their families. Even from his limited perspective on life, he knew how important family meant. He kept having dreams of a Republic official having to go to their houses in the dead of the night to inform them of their parent's, spouse's, child's death. But not getting a body for the funeral? That was a killer.

Of course, RepIntel would find a way to cover it up. They would probably say they died defending the Republic, all that usual _osik_ that'll give the families some relief. Nuts sipped on his caf as he looked around the room. He noticed a few Weequays, bounty hunters, probably, lingering at the table next to theirs while pounding on the backs of one of their buddies. He obviously had too much to drink, his speech slurring and as loud as a larty. Nuts turned back and ignored him, more interested in his brother's bragging to Tango Squad.

"… Then, there was only one way to save him. So I launched an ascension cable to him, and funnily enough, it hit him in the _gett'se_! He was literally dragged back to the _Ranger_ by his ' _precious goods'_!" Cryer whooped as the rest of the table, save for Falco, who was playing with his food, broke out in laughter. The sight of an unconscious Nuts being dragged back to a TIV was funny enough, even though Bravo knew he was lying. As the laughter died down, Cryer grabbed his brother by his shoulder and stood up. He lifted his glass of _tihaar_ into the air and bellowed, "To _Nuts_ , may your _nuts_ be forever protected! And your handlebar be forever long! _Oya_!"

" _Oya_!" the rest of the table echoed, gulping down their drinks and smashing the glasses back into the table. The drink burnt his throat, causing Nuts to cough as For giggled in his seat. Nuts had a passionate hatred for _tihaar_ , even though it was practically Mandalorian custom to drink it. His hatred could be traced back to Kamino, when Falco had ' _accidentally'_ passed him a cup of the thing after his 24 hour PT session and pretended that it was water. In his state of exhaustion, he didn't bother to look in it and gulped it down in one shot. It was so spicy that Nuts had to go and see Gilamar over his throat.

One of the other Commandos at the table spoke up. "I shouldn't say this so loudly, but why's it always you guys being sent on black-bag ops? Tango Squad's only been sent on one, and that was the transfer of a bunch of prisoners," Sixer whined while his squad sergeant, Pulp, took the bottle of _tihaar_ to pour himself another shot.

"Probably 'cause you guys are _osik_ at everything," For flatly stated with a serious look on his face before bursting out into laughter. Falco grabbed him and started to drag him out of the booth towards the toilet. The squad had already memorized his actions and knew that he was flat-out drunk, probably about to puke. While they stood up to leave the table, For collapsed to the ground, where a pool of drool started to form almost immediately. Falco rolled his eyes at the sight. It was clearly going to be a long day.

"Oi! _Clone_! Get that abomination of the floor! It's killin' the mood!" That gravelly voice was clear over the other loud voices in the restaurant. Every conversation died down, the CSF cops becoming noticeably becoming more wary of the swing of atmosphere. One of the Weequay's was pointing his long, grey finger at Falco. Tango and Bravo stared back in response, frozen like a nerf in the headlights. It was always rude and insulting to get called a _Clone_ , as though they were some kind of animal.

Pulp, the sergeant of Tango, stood up and walked over to the Weequay's table. He was a lot more bulky than the average Commando. Pulp worked out in the gym as much as he could, often being referred to as the Gym Freak of Arca Barracks. He raised his arms in an attempt at peace as he loomed over the twelve Weequays. "Listen, buddy. I'm in a good mood, so let's keep calm, eh? Whaddaya say I buy you another round of drinks to make up for my _vod_ 's mistakes, eh?"

The rest of the restaurant murmured in agreement, as it was the way one made peace with another table if things got bad. Pulp turned to look for the waitress, only to hit the ground as a bottle narrowly missed his head and smashed into the ceiling where it shattered to pieces.

"Why don't you go stick that idea where the sun don't shine, _abomination?_ You're bred to obey a Republic citizen. Guess what? I _am_ a citizen. And keep your mando nonsense to yourself, you _brainless lab product_ ," the Weequay slurred as he and his gang stood up. At least they were an honorable bunch, for Weequays, not drawing their blasters on any of the Clones. The tension started to get worse as Pulp pulled himself off the floor silently, with Sixer gulping in horror at the look on his Sergeant's face. There was a reason why he was called Pulp, and it was because he had a temper and smashed everyone's face when it came to CQC. Naturally, he would always stop whenever Skirata yelled 'check', but the contractor wasn't here.

The Weequay and Pulp had a staring match, their eyes locked in each other as the rest of the restaurant silently watched on. Nuts noticed from the little movement that a few CSF officers removing their hold-out blasters from their holsters and placing them on their laps. Both parties did not react until the Weequay spat on Pulp's boots and started to walk out of the Kragget. Pulp finally lost his cool as he grabbed the alien and slammed him into the table. The others Weequays started to swarm him as the Commando grabbed a bottle and smashed it into the flailing Weequay's skull.

"Falco and the rest of Tango looked at each other, nodding their heads before clambering over to help Pulp. Cryer and Nuts, on other hand, remained at the table. The former was busy pouring more of the _tihaar_ into his glass.

"Should we help them?" Nuts loudly asked over the scuffle.

"… Nahhhhh. Look. CSF's already intervening," Cryer pointed out the five cops entering the fray.

* * *

 **Chancellor's office**

Kofer sat with her fingers interlocked while she looked up at the ceiling. She was waiting for the other RepIntel officer to shift his _shebs_ and come down quickly. Palpatine could sense she was getting more and more agitated by the second. He sighed as he looked at the chrono, which indicated the officer was already late by ten – no, eleven – minutes. Despite the fact that this officer was already one of his Hands, Palpatine noted that he should have a chat with him later.

"Sorry I'm late," Staffen said as he burst into the room, dumping the files stuffed with flimsi notes onto the table. "Traffic was horrible. A lot of speeder lanes got shut down, again. It's a nightmare out there, sir."

"Apology accepted, Lieutenant. Anything you want to report on the _Javert_?"

"Yes, sir," Staffen proceeded to hand out two of the three briefing files to Kofer and the Chancellor. The file was at least four centimeters thick, with a "top-secret" label marking on its cover. Kofer sighed as she flipped through it, thinking that it was going to take the bureaucratic Staffen ages to get through this material. The Lieutenant cracked his knuckles before licking his finger and flipping the file open, causing Kofer to open her mouth in disgust. She and Staffen shared a rivalry for approval of the Chancellor, and she privately wondered what he saw in him.

"Okay. My droids managed to search through the wreckage of the crash site on Dani and they found the black box. Luckily, the two Clones, CT-2100 and CT-9183, didn't completely thrash the system. The transmission was successively saved, but half the data was lost in the crash. The code breakers managed to decipher the data, and it has something to do with a terror cell targeting the Morr family, of Naboo."

The mention of her old family's name was like a stab through Kofer's heart. Her hands started to tremble as Palpatine turned to look towards her. Sweat was dripping off her face and tears started to fill her eyes as she started to remember her past. Her eyes turned to stare back at the Chancllor's. The Morr family was one of the richest on Naboo. Her mother, Kali Morr's, business was primarily agricultural, with occasional funding towards building speeders. She knew that her father, Rog Morr, played in an integral part in Naboo politics, being one of the Queen's advisors.

Staffen, on the other hand, took no notice of Kofer's pale face and continued his briefing. "The Morr family's got some big event coming up, apparently. Something to do with their younger daughter getting married." Another stab to the heart. "The background of this terror group's mission is to disrupt it, and kill Rog Morr, the head of the family. He's an advisor to the queen."

"As for other… interesting points on the Morrs, their elder daughter disappeared off the grid, but her friends have told my contact on Naboo that they sent letters to her current address. Her family is still trying to thaw the ice between them, as they apparently gave her away to the Jedi Council. She left the Order, by the way. Other records indicate that she owned a pet Bantha and her family still keeps a picture of her as a toddler in their living room." A shot to her head. Her family had actually kept a picture of her.

He handed out a sheet of flimsi to each of them, having to toss Kofer's copy at her, as she didn't respond. "Surprisingly, the records don't have her name. All I have's an artist's impression of what she might look like now. I gotta say, she looks _very_ familiar. I can't place the face… but I've definitely seen her be…"

Staffen trailed off as the realization dawned on him. A simple "oh" left his mouth as he looked up at Kofer, who was busy trying to wipe her tears. She was trying to stifle her sniffles in an attempt to not look weak in front of Staffen. The Lieutenant looked away awkwardly at the Chancellor, who had his fingers interlocked in front of his eyes. "Would you like me to continue, sir?"

"Not now, Lieutenant. Schedule another appointment with my office. You may take your leave now," he whispered quietly as Staffen stood up, saluted, and walked out of the office. The only two people who remained were Kofer and Palpatine. The two sat in silence before the Chancellor stood up and looked out the window at Galactic City. The lanes were bustling with speeders, who zipped back and forth, not a care in the world.

"I should handle it, sir."

The Chancellor turned to look back at the Colonel. She now sat up in her seat, the file draped on the table next to her. She appeared to be more confident than ever. Kofer privately knew of her younger sister's wedding, after she opened her mail a few days ago. It had been a wedding invitation, and she was getting married to another big-shot on Naboo at the family villa.

"The assassination of Rog Morr will lead to the queen losing her biggest advisor, along with this Separatist funded cell gaining the upper hand. She could be overthrown, and who knows who will take her place? We could possibly lose a vital ally in the Republic. We have to stop this plan, sir." Kofer bluntly stated before Palpatine could respond.

Palpatine raised his eyebrow at her as he sensed her anger in the Force. He crossed his arms and nodded his head. "Fine, take whatever resources you need. Remember, we can't ri…" He didn't manage to finish his sentence because her datapad buzzed. Kofer took it out and stared at it. Sighing, it was her contact from CSF reporting some bad news. She stated that she had some business to take care of before she left the room, her bad mood clearly showing as she stomped out of it. When the doors closed, the Chancellor allowed himself to smile into the darkness while he sat back down into his chair.

Everything in his plan was going accordingly, now it was up to Kofer to settle the rest.

* * *

 _Author's notes:  
Chapter 2 is ended. Thanks for reading.  
I personally liked writing about Kofer's backstory, seeing as she's my favorite character to write about, besides Nuts, of course.  
Also, I decided to make the Project into it's own series, seeing as how when I was writing it, I started to like the characters. It's sort of a Detective story, focusing on a Detective's view of the story as he investigates it. It will have a sort of noir feel to the story._


End file.
